Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 03/06 - Sonos Won’t Brick Your Old Hardware Anymore

Episode Date: March 6, 2020

Another flaw in Intel chips, this time unfixable. Y Combinator demo day is going online only. Sonos won’t brick your old hardware anymore. Jack Dorsey probably won’t be moving to Africa anymore. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Links: Metalab.co TheUSample.com/product Links: 5 years of Intel CPUs and chipsets have a concerning flaw that’s unfixable (Ars Technica) Apple is rejecting coronavirus apps that aren’t from health organizations, app makers say (CNBC) YC W20 Online Demo Day (YCombinator) Sonos kills its device-bricking 'recycle mode' (Engadget) Quibi is giving people a 90-day free trial in hopes they’ll actually sign up (The Verge) Jack Dorsey is reconsidering Africa move amid coronavirus and activist investor threats (The Verge) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: So you wanna buy a used IP address block? (Web Informant) The Untold Story of the Man That Made Mainstream Encryption Possible (One Zero) Sportswriting’s future may depend on the Athletic, which is either reassuring or terrifying (Washington Post) Hideo Kojima’s Strange, Unforgettable Video-Game Worlds (NYTimes Magazine) Can You Really Hire a Hit Man on the Dark Web? (NYTimes) This Utility Heats New York State—And Mines Its Own Bitcoin (Bloomberg) Classic iPod Hackers Say There’s No Better Way to Listen to Music (One Zero) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Friday, March 6, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, another flaw in Intel chips, this time unfixable. Why Combinator Demo Day is going online only, and I think you probably can guess why. Sonos won't brick your old hardware anymore. Jack Dorsey probably won't be moving to Africa anymore. And of course, the weekend long read suggestions.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. An unfixable flaw in nearly all Intel chips released in the last five years has been discovered. that allows sophisticated attackers to access the mask ROM, a piece of the chip that boots the very first piece of CSME firmware. And the vulnerability can't be patched with a firmware update, quoting Ars Technica. The flaw resides in the converged security and management engine, a subsystem inside Intel CPUs and chipsets that's roughly analogous to AMD's platform security processor. Often abbreviated as CSME, this feature implements the firmware-based trusted platform module used for silicon-based encryption, authentication of UEFI BIOS firmware,

Microsoft System Guard, and BitLocker, and other security features. The bug stems from the failure of the input-output memory management unit, which provides protection preventing the malicious modification of static random access memory to implement early enough in the firmware boot process. That failure creates a window of opportunity for other chip components such as the integrated sensor hub to execute malicious code that runs very early in the boot process with the highest of system privileges. Quote, this vulnerability jeopardizes everything Intel has done to build the root of trust and lay a solid security foundation on the company's platform.

Mark Emmerlov, lead specialist of OS and hardware security at security firm positive technologies wrote in a post detailing the bug. Quote, the problem is not only that it is impossible to fix firmware errors that are hard-coded into the mask ROM of microprocessors and chipsets. The larger worry is that because this vulnerability allows a compromise at the hardware level, it destroys the chain of trust for the platform as a whole, end quote. Sources are telling CNBC that Apple is rejecting apps related to COVID-19, if they do not originate from recognized institutions like governments or hospitals.

For independent developers told CNBC that Apple rejected their apps, which would allow people to see stats about which countries have confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Some of these apps used public data from reliable sources like the World Health Organization to create dashboards or live maps. Some developers ask not to be named to avoid further complications with Apple's review process. One developer said an Apple employee explained over the phone that anything related to the coronavirus must be released by an official health organization or government. another developer got a written response that, quote, apps with information about current medical information need to be submitted by a recognized institution, according to a screenshot seen by CNBC, end quote.

And since we're on coronavirus news, right before I went in to record, why Combinator announced it would be moving its demo day online for reasons that I think you can guess. Quote, while we won't be able to recreate every aspect of demo day, we'll try our best to create an amazing experience for our fact. founders and investors. Presentations will be pre-recorded and released to all investors at the same time on Monday, March 23rd, on our Demo Day website. We will also provide additional written background information on each company and access to their decks. Finally, our software will make it easy for investors and founders to exchange contact information so that they can arrange one-on-one meetings.

All of this will happen on the same Y Combinator Demo Day website that investors and founders have used over the past five years, end quote. honestly don't remember if we ever talked about this on the show, but some weeks ago, Sonos announced that its old hardware would be getting a recycle mode, which would brick older devices. It no longer supported in an effort to get customers to upgrade to newer models. Well, Sonos is backing down from that after a justified customer backlash, quoting and gadget. Last fall, the company introduced a trade-up program. If you owned one of Sonas's oldest products, you could send it to the company and get 30% off new gear.

However, to get the discount, you had to put your old products in recycle mode, a setting that would permanently make them unable to connect to a network or work with other Sonos gear. Today, the company is reversing course. A Sonos spokesperson confirmed that the trade-up program will continue, but recycling mode is no more. If you want to get the 30% discount, you just need to prove you own one of the eligible legacy products by validating its serial number. Once that's done, you can apply the discount to anything Sonoma. is currently selling at its online store. Indeed, the trade-up name isn't exactly accurate because

you can continue using the legacy hardware as long as you want. Sonos says you can give it to a friend, keep using it yourself, sell it, recycle it, send it to them, it doesn't matter. Unfortunately, if you've already set some products to recycle mode, you can't reverse it. But Sonos said, customers in that situation should contact its customer service team, end quote. Now, this does not mean that Sonos has reverse course on no longer updating legacy products beginning in May. Older products won't be getting any new features after that date or updates. It's just that now they can still continue working just as they do now. Quibi is almost here.

The short form video service is set to launch April 6 with 50 shows and movies, and in order to entice people to give Quibi a go, Quibi will offer a free 90-day trial. for anyone who signs up before launch. Quoting Julia Alexander and the Verge. After the 90-day trial, Quibi will cost $4.99 with ads and $7.99 per month without. That's more expensive than Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus, both of which run ad-free.

Of those 50 launch titles, four are movies in chapters, referring to the way movies will be presented in the app, split into chunks between four and 10 minutes in length. The other 19 shows are unscripted series and original, including punked with Chance the Rapper, Murder House Flipped, a show about flipping homes where people have been murdered,

and Chrissy Tegan's Judge Judy inspired court show. That's also just launch day. Quibi plans to release hours upon hours of content to keep people coming back every single day, end quote. I don't know if we talked about this either,

but a few months ago, Jack Dorsey announced he would be moving to Africa this year for a period of months in order to work on a Bitcoin project. Well, after the those activist investors started accumulating a stake in Twitter in an effort to get Dorsey canned as Twitter CEO, Dorsey now says he's reevaluating his plans. Somewhat because of the coronavirus

outbreak, he says, but also because of, quote, everything else going on, quoting the verge. Dorsey now characterizes announcing the Africa decision without any proper context as a mistake. He went on to clarify that as one of the most populated continents over the next few decades, Africa will be a huge opportunity for young people to join the platform and that Twitter will be exploring options in Africa in the future. But it sounds like the plan to move there for part of the year is far less likely now. Dorsey's change of plans with regard to Africa can be viewed as his first public acknowledgement of the threat Elliot poses to his leadership role. Dorsey originally said back in November of last year that he planned to spend three to six months

in Africa, which he said will define the future, especially the Bitcoin one, end quote. The move was perplexing for a number of reasons, most prominently, the fact that Dorsey runs not one, but two major tech firms, the other being Payments Company Square, end quote. Yes, the Elliott reference there is Elliott Management, the activist investing firm. And yeah, maybe it was weird behavior like just up and planning to move to Africa that made Elliott Management think it was time for change in leadership at Twitter in the first place. Time for the weekend long reads, suggestions. First up, I've heard of buying and selling domain names, but did you know you can buy and sell IP blocks? Makes sense. Anyway, for 27 years, David Strom has owned a Class C block of IP version 4 addresses.

He decided to try to sell the block, and he shared his experiences on his blog. Quote, it was a good block, perhaps a perfect block. And all the time I owned it, I had never set up any computers using any of the 256 IP addresses associated with it. In used car terms, it was in mint condition. Virgin cyberspace territory. So began my journey into the used marketplace that began just before the start of the year, end quote. In 1-0, Stephen Levy has the untold story of Witt Diffy, the man who invented public key cryptography, quote, now the idea of ensuring privacy by using keys that were exchanged totally in the open was completely non-intuitive and on the face of it bizarre.

but using the mathematics of one-way functions, it could work. Diffy knew it, and for an illuminating instant, he knew how to do it using one-way functions. It was the answer. From that moment, everything was different in the world of cryptography, end quote. By the way, we'll be talking to Stephen Levy on the weekend bonus episode tomorrow, not about this story, but about his recent book about Facebook. The Washington Post says, the Athletic, that subscription sports news site, might be sports writing's best hope for survival.

But it's not sure if that's reassuring for sports writing or terrifying. Quote, The Athletic is an ever-expanding behemoth at a time when many of its competitors, daily newspapers, magazines, websites are shrinking or shuddering. Last year alone, Deadspin imploded, and Sports Illustrated laid off more than a third of its staff. The Athletic kept hiring, and now it employs around 430 journalists in the United States in Britain, likely the largest stable of sportswriters and editors in the industry. ESPN has around 400 comparable reporters and editors, plus hundreds more who work in TV and other parts of the newsroom. The Athletic has raised $140 million, is approaching 1 million subscribers, and is valued at about $500 million, according to the company.

But it's not yet profitable. It hasn't released any revenue figures, and it has continued to raise money, including a recent buy-in from actor Matthew McConaughey. In other words, it could represent the idyllic future of sports journalism, a venture capital-backed mirage, or something in between, end quote. I continue to be fascinated by the athletic mainly as a business model experiment, but also because some of my favorite sports writers now apply their trade over there. I think I shared something similar to this piece a few months ago, but the New York Times magazine has a profile of video gameuteur Hideo Kojima, quote, How do you explain Hideo Kojima to someone who has never picked up a PlayStation controller? His admirers have often compared him to filmmakers. Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, George Lucas, James Cameron. Each comparison has its merits.

Like Lucas, Kojima is inseparable from a beloved franchise in Metal Gear Solid that has achieved mythic status among fans. Like Tarantino, he cheekily shows off his virtuosity through postmodern tricks of deconstruction and self-referentiality. The narratives of the Metal Gear Solidarity, games can be hallucinatory, surreal, and difficult to follow in a lynchian manner. But at the same time, the games are staggeringly popular, big-budget blockbusters that marry technical wizardry with cheesy melodrama a la Cameron. Perhaps more notable than his resemblance to any particular

film director is the fact that such a comparison would be made at all, end quote. Next, it's an urban legend as old as the web. Can you really hire a hitman to kill somebody if you hunt around on the dark web. Nathaniel Popper at the New York Times investigates, he finds that most sites purporting to offer assassin services are scams. Because what's easier to do?

Actually kill someone and offer proof of that or just say you're going to kill someone and take someone's money because what are they going to do? Report you to the cops for ripping them off. Still, quote, one of the most surprising findings of the study was that the prices charged by these sites were broadly in line with what past academic research has established as the going price for real-life hitmen.

About $1,000 in Australia and $18,000 in England, end quote. Life, it seems, is cheap. Next, Bloomberg has the story of the power plant in upstate New York that is using the electricity it produces to generate $50,000 in Bitcoin every single day. Quote, Atlas Holdings LLC, the private equity firm that runs the operation, has installed some 7,000 crypto mining machines at the Greenage Generation Plant in recent months that can mine about five and a half bitcoins per day. The 65,000 square foot facility in Dresden, New York was built in 1937 as a coal plant and later

converted to natural gas. The machines work off so-called behind-the-meter power, which makes it extremely low cost, the private equity firm said. Because powering crypto mining machines is usually so energy intensive, miners have been roaming the world seeking out cheap. electricity, such as that available from hydro power plants. Many met with unwelcome surprise when those utilities jacked up prices. But Greenage says its power costs are predictable and low, essentially just costs of production, which can be offset by power-related services, end quote. And finally today,

from 100, the story of the community of hackers who keep classic iPods alive. No better way to listen to music, even to this day, they say, quote, Apple may have discontinued the last last of the click wheel iPods years ago, but pitchy is part of a growing community of tinkers giving the device's new life. It's not just for nostalgia, though that's part of it. iPad modders say they earnestly view the devices with a few modern tweaks as a superior way to listen to music. That this elite audio quality is packaged in a device that is also dear to their heart makes it even better, end quote. Hey, happy birthday to us. Two years ago today, this podcast was long.

This is episode 580, according to our podcast host. And we passed 25 million total downloads a long time ago. So congratulations to us. And as always, thank you to you. I continue to be immensely humbled that you all listen to my ramblings every single day. As I mentioned, one weekend bonus episode this weekend. It's an interview with Stephen Levy about his new book. It's a history of Facebook.

You know I love it. I love the conversation too. Enjoy that and talk to you on Monday.